


i hope there's still room for me

by hansoom



Category: PRISTIN (Band)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-01
Updated: 2017-06-01
Packaged: 2018-11-07 18:47:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11064945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hansoom/pseuds/hansoom
Summary: Jieqiong learns about Eunwoo in sentences.





	i hope there's still room for me

Jieqiong learns about Eunwoo in sentences.

i.  
  
‘You know how child stars are, right? But she’s like, a _failed_ child star, so make of that what you will.’ Yebin rips the lid of her ramen with her teeth, setting it down in the space between her legs, left crossed over the right. She picks up her chopsticks and separates them with a loud crack.  
  
Jieqiong suppresses a cough. It comes out anyway, sounding weak and wheezy from the battle to stay in her chest.  
  
Yebin’s rubbing her chopsticks together, apparently to remove splinters. Jieqiong’s tried it and got one stuck in the gums of her right cheek anyway. She brings metal chopsticks around now.  
  
Yebin opens the lid and whistles through her teeth. The steam fogs up a bit of Jieqiong’s glasses. 'You’re not eating?’  
  
'I had dinner.’  
  
Yebin rolls her eyes. 'Right. You have to stop doing this, getting so antsy when a new girl comes.’ Yebin shrugs good-naturedly. 'Who knows, you guys might hit it off!’  
  
Jieqiong watches Yebin in the mirror as she wolfs down the ramen. Their practice room isn’t large, but it’s more than big enough for the two of them. She splays her legs out in front of her just because she can.  
  
_One more person isn’t bad_ , Jieqiong tells herself, but her fingers still linger on the light switch as they leave. One more person seems like too much. A child star’s personality is too big, she’ll overwhelm the room and ruin the good thing they have going on here.  
  
She turns off the lights.  
  
  
ii.  
  
'Eunwoo, get yourself together, it’s the fifth class already.’ Jieqiong looks up through sweaty bangs to see rough hands on Eunwoo’s elbows. Her grey shirt is already soaked through with sweat, and she’s breathing heavily. Eunwoo’s been filling out quickly recently, and it’s making it harder for her to adapt to dancing. The instructor has a knee jammed behind Eunwoo’s, and she’s repeating the counting pattern again as if Eunwoo hasn’t heard it twenty times before.  
  
Jieqiong stays back sometimes to be with Eunwoo. She doesn’t teach her, doesn’t push her. Just lets her repeat the same move again and again until she’s spent, then hands her her bag so they can walk back to the dorm together. Eunwoo’s smile is always the gentlest then, tired and worn.  
  
’ _Again_ ,’ Ms Lee urges with force, as if more conviction would make Eunwoo’s body comply. Jieqiong catches a flash of Eunwoo’s expression in the mirror; she’s seen them before in her own eyes: the urge to resign, to give up. To pack up and leave. It lasts for only a moment before her gaze turns to fire, and Eunwoo’s swinging her arms twice as hard, her feet drawing steady shapes across the thin floor.  
  
Jieqiong feels her lips curving up of their own accord.  
  
  
iii.  
  
'Girl, are you a foreigner?’  
  
Jieqiong’s catalogued, in her mind, the way Eunwoo blushes. It starts from the tips of her ears, travels down her jaw and creeps its way up to her cheeks. She can almost feel the heat radiating off Eunwoo’s face when she stammers “N-no, why would you ask that, ahjumma?’  
  
'Oh!’ The shopkeeper says, 'well, because, I mean, you look… you look really… you have an interesting way of speaking,’ she finishes lamely, and an ugly laugh escapes Jieqiong before she can stop it. She slings an arm around Eunwoo’s shoulders, pulling her close. 'She’s been hanging around me too much, I think.’  
  
'Ah…’ The face across the oak counter already looks like she’s regretting this entire conversation, so Jieqiong pushes her card with finality across the countertop to save all of them from this situation.  
  
'Thank you,’ she says brightly, squeezing Eunwoo’s fingers that are clapsed between her own. 'The food was delicious.’  
  
  
iv.  
  
'What does this mean?’ Eunwoo’s chewed off the entire back-end of her pencil. There’s no eraser left, and probably some wood stuck between her teeth by now.  
  
The results of this dilligent chewing are a caricature of Jieqiong and what looks like trees along the margins of her worksheet.  
  
'Why did you even take this module?’ Jieqiong’s finished with her homework, and she’s resting on her stomach, her chin placed neatly on her knuckles, legs splayed behind her. Watching Eunwoo struggle with Chinese has been her pasttime for the last few weeks.  
  
'I told you, our teacher said the Chinese market is _super_ important now so it’d be good to know a bit.’  
  
'You tried learning English that time and nearly broke my photoframes when you threw the dictionary.’  
  
'Whatever,’ Eunwoo says, staring resolutely at the worksheet. 'Just 'cause you’re good at languages.’  
  
'There, there,’ Jieqiong nudges at Eunwoo with her toes. She gets a death glare in return and a pack of ice on her face the next morning.  
  
Still worth it.  
  
  
v.  
  
'Our Eunwoo’s not really good at anything,’ her mom leans over and whispers conspiratorially. Eunwoo’s at the counter unsuspectingly ordering brownies for them. The new 50,000 won note her mother had given her is crumpled now, folded across every edge while Eunwoo’s been waiting in line. 'So thank you all for looking after her.’  
  
Her mother’s hands are warm when she lays them on Jieqiong’s.  
  
'Ah,’ Jieqiong says, embarrassed. 'We really didn’t do much, there wasn’t a need to treat us to this-’  
  
'No,’ her mother protests, louder than anything she’d said the whole afternoon. 'You’re her friends,’ she reaches over to take Minkyung’s hand as well, and Jieqiong feels something inside her rattle as Eunwoo’s mom removes her hand from atop Jieqiong’s own.  
  
Eunwoo comes back with two plates stacked with brownies and ice cream, the forks and knives rattling precariously above Kyla’s head. Yewon nearly kicks over her chair scrambling to help her set them down on the table.  
  
'So,’ Eunwoo says, manouvering one of the plates between Nayoung and Yebin’s heads, 'what were you guys talking about?’  
  
'Just some stories from your childhood,’ her mother says. Eunwoo nearly drops the plate on the table at this. 'This isn’t funny, mom,’ she whines, slumping into the seat beside Jieqiong.  
  
'Don’t worry,’ her mother says, picking up a fork. 'I saved the best for last.’  
  
  
vi.  
  
'Just follow the music, you got this,’ Eunwoo whispers before pushing Jieqiong onstage.  
  
The truth is that Eunwoo is good at a language that Jieqiong may never master.  
  
The spotlight always makes Jieqiong feel warm and sticky. When there’s no movement to obscure the sweat gathering on the nape of her neck, no voice to follow but her own. The mic in her hand shakes every time she brings it up to her mouth.  
  
Eunwoo’s sitting in the audience watching her, thumbs as high as they can go. She’s afraid that if she doesn’t start now the older girl might start standing on the cloth seats.  
  
Jieqiong looks over at Nayoung, who’s gripping her mic so tight that it might stop functioning. Nods at the audio guy backstage. The music starts.  
  
  
vii.  
  
It isn’t her dream, Jieqiong realizes, when Eunwoo’s eyes shutter closed for a moment, when she loses track of where she is and the thousands of people watching her.  
  
Dreams can be given up on. Dreams can change. Eunwoo has only ever known how to sing.  
  
The first note hits and she looks up, right into the spotlight, and bursts into song.

**Author's Note:**

> wrote this a whole while back so a lot of things seem slightly inconsistent with what we know now but i do like this a lot anyway


End file.
